Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster: Overview

Cities:

The Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster consists of 15 cities (Chengdu, Zigong, Luzhou, Deyang, Mianyang, Suining, Neijiang, Leshan, Nanchong, Meishan, Yibing, Guang'an, Dazhou, Ya'an, and Ziyang) in Sichuan province and the entire Chongqing municipality.

Location:

Sitting in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the metropolitan region is based around Chengdu and Chongqing, the two most prosperous mega-cities in Southwest China. It's located at the intersection of the Yangtze River and the high-speed rail between Baotou in Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Kunming in Yunnan province.

Area:

It covers an area of 185,000 square kilometers, equivalent to the size of North Dakota in the upper Midwestern United States.

Population:

It is home to a population of 94,950,000 (2017), accounting for almost 6.9 percent of China's total.

Economy:

In 2017, the GDP of the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster was 5.09 trillion yuan ($753 billion), contributing to about 6.2 percent of the country's total.

In 2018, both Chengdu and Chongqing ranked among the top 10 for total GDP among Chinese cities. Chengdu, eighth on the list, registered 8 percent year-on-year growth and recorded a GDP of 1.53 trillion yuan, while Chongqing, fifth on the list, saw its GDP reach 2.04 trillion yuan.

Advantages:

Fertile lands and rich resources.
Complete transportation systems.
Developed electronic information, manufacturing, and finance industries.
A shared cultural identity, as Chongqing was once part of Sichuan province.
Policies and opportunities brought by the Western Development Program and the Belt and Road Initiative.

Orientation:

The Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster is set to spearhead the industrialization, urbanization, and opening-up of west China while building an appealing living environment with sustainable development.

It is also expected to become the fourth pillar of China's economy, following the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions, and create an inland growth engine to diversify the country's economic growth.

Targets:

According to the plan approved by the State Council in April 2016, the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster has the following targets:

To become a key industrial base of China.

To explore innovation-driven development.

To build a more open economy at regional and international levels.

To better integrate urban and rural development.

To pilot green development featuring resource conservation, environmental protection, and the harmony between human and nature.

To become a competitive national city cluster by 2020.

To enter the list of world-class city clusters by 2030.